There are certain picture books teachers grab year after year because they’re perfect for the first week of school. For us, A Letter from Your Teacher on the First Day of School is becoming one of those books.
When you’re working on setting the tone for your classroom and beginning to establish a healthy culture, this one’s a great choice. There are so many directions you can take after reading it.
In the book, the teacher writing the letter wants to know all about her new students. So, it seems like a natural next step for us to make a way to get to know our own students, too. All About Me projects are a pretty common back to school activity… you’re probably already planning yours now.
We get to know our kids in a variety of ways, but this template👆 is one way we start. It’s outlined in a way that helps children respond to simple prompts, which is really helpful during the first week of school when some of them are still acting like a deer in the headlights.
There are so many other nuggets in this book though. Press on past the All About Me project to uncover more learning opportunities!
OTHER WAYS TO USE THE BOOK
Ok, so you’ve checked out your copy of A Letter from Your Teacher on the First Day of School. And you’ve planned your All About Me project. But what else can you do with the book?
First things first… there are some high-level words in this book.👇
It will be hard to dive into good conversations if kids don’t have a clue what some of these words mean. Addressing the key vocabulary words in the book will help kids participate in the discussions.
Simple definitions, related dialogue, and supportive illustrations can help them learn new words like empathy, challenge, and persevere.
MORE IDEAS
Invite students to write their own letters to you! We use three different templates so the kids can choose the one they like best. This one is my personal favorite. In this “letter,” the writer responds to: These are three things I want you to know about me. It’s guided, yet open-ended enough to allow for a wide range of thought. If you try this, you’ll love their responses!
Also in the book, the author talks about goals and the idea of “not yet.” We love this topic! Goal setting is important to us and we work hard on raising kids who think about where they want to be and what needs to happen to get there. We even love the idea of starting this kind of work during the first few weeks of school! Why not?👇
And you know the part in the book where the teacher asks how kids want to be greeted? Yep… we love that part, too. We know not every kid wants to make actual contact with other people. I get it.
But I do want to know HOW they want to be greeted, so we made a little sheet with a few common ideas on it. They get to pick their top three choices and poof… everyone’s happy. There’s even a blank spot for them to add their own idea if they want to.👇
Can you believe all of this is packed neatly into one little picture book?
A LETTER FROM YOUR TEACHER ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
If this book is in your back to school read-aloud stack, yay! We think your kids are going to enjoy it. If you were wondering what to do with it, I hope these ideas have helped you make some decisions. And if you need something ready to print and use, you can grab it 👉HERE. The resource was designed with first and second grade kids in mind, but you could make it work in kindergarten or third grade with a little bit of tweaking here and there.
Happy teaching!
BEFORE YOU WRAP UP YOUR BACK TO SCHOOL PLANNING
Bookmark these back to school posts to read when you have a little extra time. They might be just the thing you need to fill those few empty spots in your first week plans!
